The Cost of Working as a Medical Professional in the US

[Peter1469]

The Cost of Working as a Medical Professional in the US (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-leadership/wp/2014/06/09/the-outrageous-cost-of-working-in-medicine/)

Some pretty stark numbers:


And yet 60 percent of medical students, for example, hail from families with incomes in the top 20 percent of the nation. Meanwhile only 3 percent (https://www.aamc.org/download/328322/data/statedebtreport.pdf) come from families with incomes in the lowest 20 percent. The prospect of having to borrow and incur debts of $150,000 to $250,000 to enter the profession causes many students to seek careers elsewhere.


Even those students who do successfully navigate the rocky financial terrain of health professions programs graduate with intense financial pressure, which then distorts their professional career choices. It often leads them to choose high-paying, procedurally intense specialties such as anesthesia, dermatology and orthopedic surgery rather than a primary-care field such as family medicine, pediatrics or internal medicine.

[Blackrook]

There is no way to solve the high cost of medical school other than to get the government involved, and then they will screw things up more. So please, leave it alone.

[Bob]

I plan to ask my eye doctor but both my Cardiologist and my GP were officers that served in the military of the USA.

Cardiologist. I tell you, he has to be the best doctor in my state. My GP told me he was a Navy Commander but his only problem is he is too brief in discussing things. But he is willing to talk about them. I was super happy and then met Dr. Carlson.

http://www.mdvip.com/JeffreyCarlsonMD

http://www.healthgrades.com/physician/dr-kenneth-kelsen-2vxrt

[waltky]

No wonder there's so many malpractice suits...
:shocked:
Study: Medical Errors Third Leading Cause of Death in US
May 04, 2016 - Medical errors now are the third leading cause of death in the United States, according to a new study.


Writing in The BMJ, researchers from the Johns Hopkins University say more than 250,000 deaths are caused by medical errors every year. This means medical errors have passed respiratory disease as the third most likely cause of death. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention keeps the official statistics about leading causes of death in the U.S., but Hopkins researchers say the CDC's way of collecting data “fails to classify medical errors separately on the death certificate.” "Incidence rates for deaths directly attributable to medical care gone awry haven't been recognized in any standardized method for collecting national statistics," said Martin Makary, professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and an authority on health reform. "The medical coding system was designed to maximize billing for physician services, not to collect national health statistics, as it is currently being used."


http://gdb.voanews.com/C57F7F73-2565-490D-9D40-BA35C8314AD0_w640_r1_s.jpg
Doctors perform surgery at St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center, Little Rock, Arkansas.

The researchers say the CDC’s methods, which were adopted in 1949, need to be changed to account for medical mistakes. "At that time, it was under-recognized that diagnostic errors, medical mistakes, and the absence of safety nets could result in someone's death," said Makary, "and because of that, medical errors were unintentionally excluded from national health statistics." The researchers looked at death rate data from 2000 to 2008 as well as hospitalization rates from 2013. Using that data, they determined that out of more than 35.4 million hospitalizations, medical errors caused more than a quarter million deaths. This, researchers say, represents 9.5 percent of all deaths in the U.S. each year.

In 2013, the CDC said heart disease was the leading cause of death in the U.S., with cancer the second, followed by respiratory disease. "Top-ranked causes of death as reported by the CDC inform our country's research funding and public health priorities," Makary says. "Right now, cancer and heart disease get a ton of attention, but since medical errors don't appear on the list, the problem doesn't get the funding and attention it deserves." Researchers caution that medical errors should not be synonymous with bad doctors, but “represent systemic problems, including poorly coordinated care, fragmented insurance networks, the absence or underuse of safety nets, and other protocols, in addition to unwarranted variation in physician practice patterns that lack accountability.”

http://www.voanews.com/content/mht-medical-errors-third-leading-cause-of-death/3314953.html

[Mac-7]

Socialized medicine that liberals dream of will reduce the quality of service

[Standing Wolf]

I have a son who graduates from medical school a week from Saturday - then he will be commissioned a Captain in the Army Medical Corps and be sent to Texas to practice emergency medicine. The DoD picked up his entire tuition, expenses and living costs. Grades, smarts, drive, and an exemplary service and academic record got him there.

[FindersKeepers]

Congrats!

He sounds like a bright and motivated young man.

It's one of life's greatest moments -- seeing one's offspring become successful in their own right.

:applause:

[Peter1469]

I have a son who graduates from medical school a week from Saturday - then he will be commissioned a Captain in the Army Medical Corps and be sent to Texas to practice emergency medicine. The DoD picked up his entire tuition, expenses and living costs. Grades, smarts, drive, and an exemplary service and academic record got him there.

Good move for him. Another benefit - in the Army his internship will not be the crazy hours civilian doctors endure. But he will have to do PT and military stuff.